The present invention is directed to a device for changing the direction in which a sheet of paper is fed when the paper printed by a printer is carried toward a sorter.
Provided at branching points of a passageway for the paper according to the prior art are flaps which are selectively pivoted, thereby changing the feeding direction of the paper. A means for pivotably driving the flaps is arranged in such a way that solenoids are joined directly to the flaps pivoted in a desired direction by turning the solenoids on and off.
Based on the prior art described above, however, the flaps are pivotably driven after the paper has completely passed a juxtaposed flap. Unless the flaps are controlled in this manner, the paper that is being fed is seized by the top end of the juxtaposed flap to hinder the feed thereof, resulting in such a drawback that the paper is damaged. Hence, problems arise peculiar to the prior art, wherein it takes a great deal of time to change the paper feeding direction, which in turn causes a drop in the effective printing speed of the printer.